KENTUCKY: Ice Water Issue

Primary season reached a peak this fortnight, with ten States going to the polls within eight days. In none except Tennessee (see p. 13) was heat generated equal to Kentucky’s. The source of Kentucky’s heat was a pitcher of ice water. For the closing hours of the race between Governor “Happy” Chandler and Majority Leader “Dear Alben” Barkley for the latter’sSenate seat were enlivened by the “poisoning” of Candidate Chandler (TIME, Aug. 1).

Fortnight ago, during a radio speech from his room in Louisville’s Kentucky Hotel, the Governor consumed more than half the contents of a pitcher of ice water brought him by Waiter Joe Berry. State Finance Director Dan Talbott and a State trooper also drank some. All three reported themselves stricken with intestinal cramps and chills which Chandler doctors diagnosed as “cyanotic.” The Governor stayed in bed for a week. The Governor’s physicians insisted he had been almost fatally poisoned. The Governor’s guards declared there had been prior poisoning attempts.

While Chandler partisans believed and shuddered, Barkley partisans disbelieved and smirked. Non-Chandler doctors pooh-poohed the poison story. Waiter Berry insisted he had filled the pitcher from the hotel’s regular water supply, that no one came near him in the elevator or corridors as he took the pitcher to the Governor’s room. Louisville police ridiculed it all. An “ice water guard and food inspector” was appointed to “protect” Senator Barkley. At a big Barkley rally last Week in Louisville, a monster pitcher of ice water was placed on the speaker’s table. Interrupting his address dramatically, Mr. Barkley pointed at the pitcher and cried: “Has it been tested?”

From the crowd, a roar: “Pour it on him, Senator!”